The National Innovation Foundation- India (NIF) has released the list of winners of the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE 2015 Award, on his 84th birth anniversary on Thursday.

IGNITE-a national competition of original technological ideas and innovations by children up to class 12 or those out of school up to the age of 17 years is organized by NIF every year to promote creativity and originality among children.

The awards of IGNITE competition are announced every year on October 15th, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s birthday, which is celebrated as the Children’s Creativity and Innovation Day by NIF.

This year, a total 31 ideas by 40 students of 27 districts from 18 states will be awarded for their ideas/innovations (List of award winners annexed). Overall, 28,106 submissions of students from 425 districts of all the states & union territories of the country were received during the IGNITE 15 competition, which ran from September 1, 2014 to September 10, 2015. The award ceremony will be held on November 30, 2015, during which Hon’ble President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee will give away the awards in Ahmedabad.

An exhibition showcasing award winning ideas will be held at the venue. NIF will file patents in all applicable cases in the name of the students and will also engage designers/fabricators to develop prototypes of the students’ ideas.

The IGNITE competition is organized by NIF in association with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Honey Bee Network, and other partners. A number of other State Educational Boards viz. Board of School Education Haryana, Nagaland Board of School Education, Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Education, Directorate of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education, Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission, Dept. of School Education, Govt. of Chhattisgarh and Directorate of School Education, Govt. of Puducherry also actively promoted the IGNITE campaign.

NIF had been blessed to have Dr Kalam’s continued guidance and advise since 2002 when, as the President of the country, he honored grassroots innovators during NIF’s second National Award ceremony. He had been closely associated ever since and gave away the Third and Fourth National awards in 2005 and 2007 respectively.

He continued to motivate the young and old alike, giving away 142 IGNITE awards to 202 children since its inception in 2008 till 2014.

NIF, an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, has been actively engaged in promoting creativity and innovation in our society through volunteers of Honey Bee Network, CBSE, State Education Boards and others. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award is an effort to focus primarily on the creativity of the children and promote inclusive and compassionate thinking among them.

“To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal” Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

One of the innovative ideas by children is:

Nilesh Raj, Patna, Bihar Class 

Gas leakage, poor handling of cooking gas appliances are known to cause horrific mishaps.Nilesh’s idea is of a gas lighter, which can sense and indicate gas leakage before it is lighted, thereby preventing accidents. According to the idea, if there is a gas leakage, the lighter would not switch on and give out a siren, instead.

The idea occurred to Nilesh when he got news of a neighbour being badly burnt due to cooking gas leak. “That is when I thought of a lighter, which would not light up if there is a gas leak and thus prevent accidents,” says Nilesh, who wants to be a mechanical engineer and create innovative products that are useful to people.

His hobbies include playing football. “I belong to a financially weak family but I am focused onstudying well so that I can grow up and serve the country,” says Nilesh, who is inspired by the life of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

However, Nilesh was not a bright student earlier. Recalling an incident that motivated him to study harder, Nilesh says, “Once my friends and I bunked school and went for a movie. Later when my father came to know about this, he was very angry. That day onwards, I decided that I will focus on my studies and stopped wasting time. Today, my parents are very proud of me for having won this award,” says Nilesh.

Interaction with faculty & students of IIMA by  Shri Pranab Mukherjee Hon’ble President of India today 30th November, 2015 at 4:20 pm. Venue: Ravi J. Matthai Auditorium, IIMA Main Campus.

Live At: http://iima.vmukti.com/